$5 off Target coupon no longer accepted

I just came back from Target and was informed during checkout that they are no longer accepting the $5 off coupon on toy purchases over $25 due to fraud. Has anyone else run into this problem?

Whew...I'm glad I used mine Sunday!

lol, doesnt surprise me im sure alot of people were using them over and over again especially with the sale. I have been able to find anything new at target for since i got starscream like a month ago so it doesnt bother me

Coupon fraud? lolwtf, how does that work with a coupon that you can use over and over and over again?

thats so stupid, how do they say no, its supposed to be able to be used again... its just a printout. do they accept those ordering online (might cover a shipping charge)

I used it today with no problems. 3 separate transactions at 2 different stores. Must be that specific store in your area.

Yep, just got back from my local Target and they had a printout at each register stating that they no longer were accepting the $5 off coupons.

Does anybody have a link to the coupon? It is no longer on the target site. I would like to look at the terms and conditions.

For those of you that don't know when a retailer does a coupon there is usually a budget attached to it. Say you offer this special to a 1000 people. Based on previous shopping patterns you anticipate maybe 25% of the people you solicit actually use it. So 250 people time $5 you anticipate the coupon costing you $1250 as an expense to get people in your toy dept.

Now when that coupon gets posted all over the damn internet and 1000's of people are using it multiple times then your screwed and you cant afford to keep the coupon going.

The reason target might consider this fraud is if the coupon states one per household or that the people using it aren't on the mailing list it was originally sent out on. It is a valid reason to cancel the deal. Just be happy you got to use it when you could

I last used one of these on Sunday and didn't have any problems, but will have to pay attention in the future.

Don't have a link, but the conditions from the ones I have on my desk:

- Expires 10/1/08
- $5 off toy purchase of $25 or more
- Limit one offer per transaction
- Void if copied, transferred, purchased, sold or prohibited by law
- No cash value

The best explanation I can think of is that people printing off multiple copies of these from the 'net would violate the "no copying" condition. Since there's no way to know whether someone presenting the coupon has printed another 1 or 100 of them already (I personally have 8 extras on my desk), Target's just decided to void them all. This could be why the coupon wasn't on Target's website for very long either; someone wised up and realized "hey, people could just print dozens of these and use them for months". As for why they didn't void the things months ago? Maybe, with the start of Animated, the coupons have started coming out of the woodwork in greater numbers.

Another possible explanation is that the coupons aren't restricted to just toy purchases for that $25. Both times I've used the coupon, I've only actually had ~$24 worth of toys and just rounded it up with a chocolate bar or pack of gum or something.

Supposedly, someone modified the coupon and was trying to use it on non-toy items.

Here's the original coupon, if you want to look at the terms.

http://www.toysightings.com/wordpres...get-coupon.gif